Photosystem II core dimers (450 kDa) and monomers (230 kDa) consisting of CP47, CP43, the D1 and D2 proteins, the extrinsic 33-kDa subunit, and the low molecular weight polypeptides PsbE, PsbF, PsbH, PsbI, PsbK, PsbL, PshTc, and PsbW were isolated by sucrose density gradient centrifugation. The photosystem II core dimers were treated with phospholipase A2 (PL-A2), which cuts phosphatidylglycerol (PG) and phosphatidylcholine molecules at the sn-2 position. The PL-A2-treated dimers dissociated into two core monomers and further, yielding a CP47-D1-D2 subcomplex and CP43. Thin layer chromatography showed that photosystem II dimers contained four times more PG than their monomeric counterparts but with similar levels of phosphatidylcholine. Consistent with this was the finding that, compared with monomers, the dimers contained a higher level of trans-hexadecanoic fatty acid (C16:1 Delta 3tr), which is specific to PG of the thylakoid membrane. Moreover, treatment of dimers with PL-A2 increased the free level of this fatty acid specific to PG compared with untreated dimers. Further evidence that PG is involved in stabilizing the dimeric state of photosystem II comes from reconstitution experiments. Using size exclusion chromatography, it was shown that PG containing C16:1 Delta 3tr, but not other lipid classes, induced significant dimerization of isolated photosystem II monomers. Moreover, this dimerization was observed by electron crystallography when monomers were reconstituted into thylakoid lipids containing PG. The unit cell parameters, p2 symmetry axis, and projection map of the reconstituted dimer was similar to that observed for two dimensional crystals of the native dimer.